Creating a Wardrobe

It's so exciting getting a parcel from Seamstar I knew what I had ordered, obviously, but I love the way it's wrapped in pink tissue with a turquoise ribbon in a bow. The fabric is Lotta Jansdotter cotton. I'm going to make this skirt . The pattern book is 'Island' by Jane Richmond, at the moment I'm undecided about whether the skirt needs a scarf to go with it,

or this lovely little cardigan. I may make both. What do you think? I did have plans to do lots of dressmaking after Easter, but events have conspired against me so again, plans on hold! Will I ever be able to retire and just knit and sew? 

Patchwork Sampler Blanket

In an attempt to get my intarsia and fair isle knitting skills ready for the 'Tilly' sweater I have gone off piste with the knitted blocks for the Patchwork Sampler Throw. See this post and this one. I still have yarn left so will need to make some more but for now this one hibernates so I can get on with other things. 

Namely this! The 'Pebbles' tapestry cushion kit by Kaffe - the colour king! It was in the sale, what could I do? I still have the Square Dance to finish but it won't take long, then I get on with it, the colours are lovely and will go so well with the Square Dance cushion. My aim is to cover my sofa with tapestry cushions. 

Working full time has meant that I have had less time to play, however after Easter I will be going back to part time so many of my half finished projects will become finished ones. Especially as I have a bit of an idea about dressmaking and creating whole outfits with knitting and sewing for myself. I have ideas in my head and on paper so watch this space.

Bits and Pieces

This blog post is a bit of a mish mash of finished projects and new projects and thoughts about them. The knitting bag I made for my lovely sister for her birthday. I couldn't post about it at the time as she reads my blog. I am really pleased with it. I just used some fabric I had in my stash.

I made two pockets for the inside, one long one and one divided into two for smaller items. We went shopping to the wool shop in Matlock!

This is my latest project, My sister and I saw the pattern in the wool shop. Sadly the yarn, Louisa Harding Kashmir is discontinued so I have chosen Drops Alpaca in rust, olive and lime. The pattern is 'Tilly' from Louisa Harding's 'Queen of Hearts' book. Rather annoyingly this is the first pattern I have looked for on Ravelry and not found and I would have loved to see how other people got on with it. The pattern book is on there but with only a few of the patterns, not all of them and not 'Tilly'!

I decided to swiss darn the flower motifs as I thought it would be neater, I think I was wrong. I also underestimated the slippyness of the yarn and my intarsia left a lot to be desired so I think this project is going to make me cross. I am spending this weekend practising fair isle and intarsia for a better finish, I'll start it again.

Silver Top Down is now finished. I have worn it but I'm not sure if I like it. There is quite a lot of sparkle in the yarn and I'm not really a bling sort of gal.

My knitting this weekend has made me grumpy so I needed to make something that would succeed and that I will like. Slippy alpaca, too much bling and rubbish intarsia. I've cheered myself up by making muffins! Thank you Attic24 for the recipe

Matlock in the Snow

A lovely weekend spent in Matlock. We had so much snow! I really wanted to record it, we had fun and it was beautiful.

And so is this, made by my clever sister for her back door. Gorgeous with the sun shining though it.

Snow Day!

If you read yesterday's blog post you'll recognise Dennis the Dove. This is him today! In  few weeks time I'll photograph him surrounded by daffodils. Am able to blog today as it's a snow day! I have been working though, so now I'm taking a break.

I've almost finished the silver top down I was making as a KAL with Mandy. So as I have had this pattern in my Ravelry queue for ages I thought I'd think about it next. I have these balls of Albayarn so I was thinking of a stripe. I only need use four of them to make the sweater or do I use all of them? Just don't know at the moment. First I need to get the right tension, and yes I do do tension squares, I know many don't. I just think that if I've spent money on the yarn and time on the garment I want to be pretty sure it will turn our the right size.

My blog posts lately seem to be very knitty. I did sew yesterday but as I made a gift and the recipient may well look at my blog I can't pop a photo on even though I'm very happy with it. Knitting is so easy to pick up and put down, unlike sewing with the machine, all that cutting up and putting the right thread in the machine and ironing of fabric etc. Once this term contract is over I'll be able to do more sewing.

Snowy Dove

It's been this sort of a day, snowing since eight this morning. I took this a few hours ago and so it looks even prettier out there now. The weather being what it was today I decided to do some sewing. A simple project which I can't show just yet but it took me ages. Mostly because when I went to get my big pot of threads down off the shelf I dislodged a glass jar of buttons which fell onto the tiled floor of the conservatory. Glass and buttons everywhere, it took me ages to pick them all up without cutting myself. Then my sewing machine kept tangling on the back of the work, in the end I had to take off the plate and give it a good clean. 

Now I'm sitting in front of a roaring fire with my knitting - fab!  

I Love Blankets

This is far as I have got with my Patchwork Sampler Throw. There are two colours still to use and quite a few more blocks to knit. I am loving it though. The yarn is from The Natural Dye Studio's Great British Wool Club from last year. The colours are moory and heathery and stormy skies, Beautiful. 

How could I resist joining this years new club, The Rainbow Club  . The first skein arrived this morning, this will definitely be another blanket although I'm really not sure which one. I have been looking at Debbie Abrahams book 'Blankets and Throws to Knit' so I'm sure I'll get some ideas from that, however, I'm open to suggestions.

Isn't this a gorgeous colour? It's called Combe Martin, it's double knit and lovely and squishy, not sure I can wait another month for the next one and the next.

I must get another couple of the squares done this weekend and I'm torn between getting on with my top down sweater, knitting squares and having to do planning and prep for school next week. Oh and a day out tomorrow visiting my mum, I shall either be knitting on the train or planning.